The Best Universities in Europe: Oxford and Cambridge

Ever dreamed of going to college in Europe? You’re not alone. Here are some of the best universities in Europe!

Many students dream of traveling to Europe, but did you know it’s possible to go to university there as well? There’s such an obsession with American schools like Harvard and Princeton, but remember that institutions such as Oxford and Cambridge have been around FOREVER and have a track record of producing some of the top mathematicians, scientists, artists, and thinkers in the history of the world! Don’t count out some of these amazing colleges. It takes a lot of bravery to pack up and move to Europe for college, but that bravery just might change your life!

Let’s take a look at the top 2 global universities in Europe, the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge.

University of Oxford

With classes having been taught there in 1096, Oxford is THE oldest university in the English-speaking world. People were learning there hundreds of years before America was founded. It’s produced nearly 30 Nobel laureates, nearly 30 Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom, and scores of brilliant thinkers such as Stephen Hawking, Richard Dawkins, Robert Hooke, Adam Smith, Aldous Huxley, Oscar Wilde, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and far too many more people to name here. It’s also produced at least a dozen saints and 12 Archbishops of Canterbury! If you study at Oxford, you’ll be part of a LONG tradition of brilliance, no matter what field you’re in.

The University of Oxford is located in Oxford, England. It has over 23,000 students, roughly split between undergraduates and postgraduates. It’s considered a “city university” as it does not have a centralized campus, but rather facilities spread throughout the city center! Dozens of beautiful and impressive buildings scattered around Oxford are where many of the top students in Europe go to learn. Famous Oxford buildings include the Sheldonian Theatre, the Radcliffe Camera, and the Examination Schools. It should also come as no surprise that Oxford has state-of-the art laboratories for scientists. Northeast of the city are the gorgeous 70-acre University Parks. On High Street is the famous Botanic Garden, which contains over 8,000 species of plants!

If you can get into Oxford and can afford to attend university in England, the best college in Europe is definitely worth a look!

University of Cambridge

Tracing its beginning back to 1209, the University of Cambridge is only slightly younger than Oxford, making it the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world. It boasts just as many incredible and world-famous alumni who changed the world. Will you be next? Incredible Cambridge people include nearly a 100 Nobel laureates, 15 British prime ministers, and brilliant people such as E.M. Forster, Douglas Adams, Vladimir Nabokov, Eudora Welty, Sylvia Plath, William Wordsworth, John Maynard Keynes, Sir Francis Bacon, Ludwig Wittegenstein, Bertrand Russell, Stephen Hawking, Henry Cavendish, Francis Crick, Niels Bohr, Charles Darwin, and Sir Isaac Newton, plus far too many more to name. Name any scientific discovery you can think of, and there’s a good chance it happened at Cambridge.

Cambridge and Oxford are so closely linked the two are sometimes referred to as “Oxbridge”! Cambridge was formed by a group of Oxford scholars who left Oxford. The university is the home of the oldest publishing house and has in its 114 libraries holdings amounting to 15 million books. Cambridge has a reputation for fostering innovation in technology and business, so much so that it’s played a key role in the development of the business cluster called “Silicon Fen.”

Cambridge is considered to be the birthplace of the modern computer. It’s also where antimatter was discovered, where the webcam was invented, where the structure of the atom was researched, where the electron and neutron were discovered, and its where the first splitters of the atom formed their partnership. In short, Cambridge is legendary.

When you’re applying to colleges, take a look at Oxford and Cambridge! They may be in England, and they may be expensive, but they may also change your life forever!

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